It's true that these things don't come along every couple months, but they never have done.
And this is without even mentioning the likes of Pantera or Machine Head who consistently fill their DVD releases with all manner of backstage shitting, pissing, drug consuming and what not. Also, The Marilyn Manson Family or whoever, they did some stuff about tearing pages from a bible, crying and so on.
In fact, in terms of shock value or the sheer enormity of seeing a bunch of superstar musicians sitting around complaining, Let It Be is fairly tame, not only by today's standards, but by the standards of its own era. Cocksucker Blues had Keith Richards falling asleep in heroin-addled stupor, Eat The Document had Dylan stoned and laughing and puking in taxis, next to a comedically unfazed John Lennon. Hell, even The Monkees took drugs and yacked about Vietnam in Head.
So, today The Duke took a gander at Let it Be, for to see if it truly is the divine plateau to which all music documentaries should aspire, or if it is, as I had suspected, a film about blokes sitting around complaining and playing a few songs.
It turns out to be a bit of both.
The music, lets not be ridiculous here, is fantastic. The first thirty minutes provide utterly transfixing performances of the likes of Maxwell's Silver Hammer, with the still-unfinished lyrics being substituted for McCartney singing about "Em, A suspended 7" and so on. There are electrifying, rugged versions of Two Of Us and I've Got A Feeling, all of which go some way to confirming McCartney's recent claims that, yes, Let It Be… Naked is how it was always meant to sound.
George Harrison is really the only one who seems in any way upset about anything, being decidedly antagonistic, in a subtle sort of fashion, for much of his screen-time. He feigns indifference to McCartney's attempts to sort out a guitar line ("Just tell me what you want me to play and I'll play it, or I won't play at all if you don't want me to") and, as he demos I Me Mine to Ringo, he sighs about "I don't care if you don't want it."
Article comments
1 - Chris Kent
Nice work on an interesting film Duke. I saw Let It Be during a midnight showing many years ago and have not seen it since. I can recall the audience hissing when the Bobbies make an appearance on the rooftop during The Beatles' final show. It's a sad documentary, detailing the end of one of the greatest bands in history, and most certainly an era. I thought the film had never been released on DVD or video for a number of reasons, but I have the album and listen to it regularly.
As for rock documentaries, the best detail bands from the 1960s for some reason, and I love the varying versions of Woodstock and Monterey Pop. The greatest rock documentary of all time in my opinion is X - The Unheard Music, a brilliant film detailing the LA punk/rock/rockabilly band and their attempts to break into the mainstream after their third album Under the Big Black Sun. There were great interviews, concert footage from the Whiskey A Go Go and battles with the corporate record companies who felt Point Blank was a better bet for heavy promotion. I saw Point Blank in concert, and X a few years later and can say in all confidence the record companies were complete idiots.....
2 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
Chris, that sounds like a flick i'd like to be seeing. A lot of the classic rock-docs are bieng exhumed for DVD, so hopefully the X flick will make an appearance.
As to the availability of Let It Be, i believe it was released on video in the mid-90's for a time, although i've never saw it in a store. There have been yackings about a special edition DVD, but as the Amazon link above testifies, nothing is confirmed. Which is odd, all being told. The Beatles have certainly never been adverse to a bout of re-releasing, and yet only three of their films are available on DVD, not counting the Anthology. Hopefully Help!, magical mystery tour and this right here will be granted a release shortly.